Like the title says, I'm gonna be playing micros to reach a highstakes endboss. I've tried a few challanges and it always ended up the same way - me tilting away the whole bankroll.

This one is gonna be for real and there's no way I will give up. My game is of course cash games, zoom to be exact. I may play reg tables and some MTTs.

Wish me luck and let's run it up!

Starting bankroll: $100

First 10k hands in and it's going well. No tilting so far as I promised myself before starting this challenge.

I need to work on the redline, that's for sure.


GG Poker - $0.05 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players[/b]
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

Hero (BTN): 134.4 BB
SB: 100 BB
BB: 82.8 BB
UTG: 219.6 BB
MP: 247.4 BB
CO: 109 BB

SB posts SB 0.4 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has 5 4

fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 2.2 BB, SB raises to 7.4 BB, fold, Hero calls 5.2 BB

Flop: (15.8 BB, 2 players) 5 4 A
SB bets 5.4 BB, Hero raises to 15.8 BB, SB calls 10.4 BB

Turn: (47.4 BB, 2 players) 9
SB checks, Hero bets 22.8 BB, SB calls 22.8 BB

River: (93 BB, 2 players) 6
SB checks, Hero bets 88.4 BB and is all-in, SB calls 54 BB and is all-in

Hero shows 5 4 (Two Pair, Fives and Fours)
(Pre 41%, Flop 75%, Turn 82%)
SB shows A T (One Pair, Aces)
(Pre 59%, Flop 25%, Turn 18%)
Hero wins 196.6 BB


bankroll: $138.95

Hit a downswing, lost a lot of buy ins because of my tilt and now I'm back at where I started. It seems like I need to hero call less and exploit more by folding on the river. Almost everytime a villain triple barrels, he almost always has a better hand than one pair.



Hand 1:
GG Poker - $0.05 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

Hero (BTN): 118 BB
SB: 112.2 BB
BB: 46.4 BB
UTG: 136.2 BB
MP: 104 BB
CO: 117.4 BB

SB posts SB 0.4 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has Q Q

UTG raises to 2.6 BB, fold, fold, Hero raises to 7.6 BB, fold, fold, UTG calls 5 BB

Flop: (16.6 BB, 2 players) 4 2 9
UTG checks, Hero bets 8 BB, UTG calls 8 BB

Turn: (32.6 BB, 2 players) 3
UTG checks, Hero bets 22.6 BB, UTG calls 22.6 BB

River: (77.8 BB, 2 players) T
UTG bets 98 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 79.8 BB and is all-in

UTG shows T T (Three of a Kind, Tens)
(Pre 18%, Flop 8%, Turn 5%)
Hero shows Q Q (One Pair, Queens)
(Pre 82%, Flop 92%, Turn 95%)
UTG wins 233 BB
In theory the call on the river is probably correct, especially with Qd but I knew that I'm gonna lose when I call his donk jam. I should've folded here but of course I didn't because I was on tilt.


Hand 2:
GG Poker - $0.05 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 100 BB
SB: 40.4 BB
BB: 210.8 BB
UTG: 117.4 BB
MP: 125.8 BB
Hero (CO): 106.8 BB

SB posts SB 0.4 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has J J

fold, fold, Hero raises to 2.6 BB, fold, fold, BB raises to 8.2 BB, Hero calls 5.6 BB

Flop: (16.8 BB, 2 players) 6 T 6
BB bets 12.6 BB, Hero calls 12.6 BB

Turn: (42 BB, 2 players) 7
BB bets 21 BB, Hero calls 21 BB

River: (84 BB, 2 players) 7
BB checks, Hero checks

BB shows Q Q (Two Pair, Queens and Sevens)
(Pre 82%, Flop 88%, Turn 95%)
Hero shows J J (Two Pair, Jacks and Sevens)
(Pre 18%, Flop 12%, Turn 5%)
BB wins 80.6 BB
Now one of my favourite spots in micros. Villain is a nit with 14 vpip and I call his 3bet. The villain bets 3/4 on the flop which screams an overpair(very often AA and KK) almost always.
I've seen only time time when someone played AK that way, only one time. When they they have aces or kings, they're most likely gonna pot the turn. I call his 1/2 on the turn and check the river. River is probably a jam from me in theory but I'm not jamming it against this guy.

I have a lot of problem folding QQ/JJ when I get cold 4 bet from a nit. I know that they're gonna have AA and KK and I still call knowing that I'm gonna lose this hand. I'm literally dumb. lmao


bankroll: $101.78

Played today 4k hands and I'm happy how I played. The worst thing out of this is that it was a breakeven session. :/

bankroll: $100.88

I'm playing like ****. Tilting and spazzing and running a bit under EV. All of this and I'm still break even. If I got rid of tilting and spazzing, it's easy money but I'm too dumb to stop tilting.

bankroll: $104.78

I have/had this problem. Patience my friend. Patience. Folding can be so hard, but it is so +EV and is the true "printer" in this game.

You got this man! You seem like you know what you need to work on, just gotta tilt less each session. No shame in sitting out, having something to eat or go for a walk and coming back to the session with a clear mind.

Subbed to see how you go!

Regarding your QQ hand that you lost vs. a set of 10’s. Sometimes those “zoom” hands can screw your IMO. This is where that HUD comes into play if you are a multi-tabler. I don’t multi-table hardly, and I pay very close attention to their patterns.

Villain would really be only going all-in with: A5 (played like a bluff since the beginning), all sets, two pair, QQ+. With that bet, villain is very polarized here it seems. But would villain truly be 3-betting and calling with low PP? Maybe. But most likely a premium PP, bluff combos, like A5s. And what would villain 3-bet-check call and overbet with.

It’s good you recognize your tilt. The ability to fold and work past that tilt is truly game changing. Good luck!

Yeah, patience is what makes me and other people tilt, that's for sure. It's not only coolers and bad beats but patience a lot of times.

Yeah, knowing what to work on is one thing but to actually work on that is something else. Thanks for good words.

I play on ggpoker and I can use only their HUD which is very weird. Some people have like 25%+ 3bet and I ran too much into their top range when I call them or 4bet them. Something is wrong with this hud or it's just very unlucky to run into strong hands. It's just seems like ggpoker's hud count first 50 hands and it stays this way throughout the whole session. I'm most likely wrong but who knows.



I've played a couple sessions terrible, almost tilted off my whole 'bankroll'. I went down to $35 and I was supposed to move down to nl2 next day but I got over $50 from ggflipout tournament and I didn't have to.

I'm proud of a session I played today actually and I noticed something weird. When I 3bet with a big sizing, people call me a lot more, I don't know why lmao. I literally 3b to 12bb IP and they call me OOP with trash. Still, need to work on tilt, less hero calls etc. but today's session was very good.



Hand 1:
GG Poker - $0.05 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 100 BB
Hero (SB): 102 BB
BB: 205.8 BB
UTG: 245.6 BB
MP: 171 BB
CO: 190 BB

Hero posts SB 0.4 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has A A

fold, fold, CO raises to 3 BB, fold, Hero raises to 12 BB, fold, CO calls 9 BB

Flop: (25 BB, 2 players) Q 9 J
Hero checks, CO bets 18.8 BB, Hero calls 18.8 BB

Turn: (62.6 BB, 2 players) 8
Hero checks, CO bets 47 BB, Hero calls 47 BB

River: (156.6 BB, 2 players) 2
Hero checks, CO checks

Hero shows A A (One Pair, Aces)
(Pre 83%, Flop 52%, Turn 40%)
CO shows 9 J (Two Pair, Jacks and Nines)
(Pre 17%, Flop 48%, Turn 60%)
CO wins 152.2 BB


Hand 2:
GG Poker - $0.05 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 100.4 BB
Hero (SB): 103.8 BB
BB: 96.6 BB
UTG: 259.8 BB
MP: 330.8 BB
CO: 76.8 BB

Hero posts SB 0.4 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has A K

fold, MP raises to 2.4 BB, fold, fold, Hero raises to 12 BB, fold, MP calls 9.6 BB

Flop: (25 BB, 2 players) 6 6 5
Hero bets 12.6 BB, MP calls 12.6 BB

Turn: (50.2 BB, 2 players) A
Hero checks, MP bets 16.6 BB, Hero calls 16.6 BB

River: (83.4 BB, 2 players) K
Hero checks, MP bets 289.6 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 62.6 BB and is all-in

MP shows 7 6 (Three of a Kind, Sixes)
(Pre 41%, Flop 96%, Turn 95%)
Hero shows A K (Two Pair, Aces and Kings)
(Pre 59%, Flop 4%, Turn 5%)
MP wins 204.2 BB
I didn't bet the turn so he can go aggro and bet with lower pairs. I got him tagged as a maniac.

Hands like these just kills me inside and I go crazy spazzing and tilting after that. lol


bankroll: $102.90

I think the hand with AA you could have got away from it with a barrel on the flop, if he calls any large bet he has some massive equity possibilities. Probably would have been able to get to the river cheap or fold it. Folding aces is hard, but doing it is the sign you are getting better IMO.

Second hand, that second bet was definitely a bit trappy, with the all-in barrel, he knew you would only call with KK+ and was probably pinpointing your range to exactly what it was. Most people cannot let AK go either.

It’s great you post these. I would still recommend you stay away from zoom, much better at watching patterns with minimal tables and watching ALL table dynamics. Good luck and happy grinding!

Yeah, I could have gotten away from hand one but there's no way to fold in a second hand.

Little update.

I've played quite bad for all this time, expect last days where I actually played good. I still need to overfold, less hero call and bluff less because those tables are station af or maybe I tried to bluff them too much and now they don't want to fold against me, lol. Won in ggcare, tilted off the whole ggcare winnings like $40, then I got some money from ggcare again and it's been pretty good so far.

My graph is pretty much useless, rakeback here and there, tilting it off etc.

bankroll: $171.22

At least you are identifying what your problems are. That’s good. Now just work on it. Sticking to your best game plan is sometimes the most difficult thing.

Yeah, it is. It's actually really hard when you tend to be result oriented, even if you know in the back of your head that you shouldn't be.



130k hands in and I'm finally at $200 mark. Yesterday's session was very good, I won 8 buy ins. Now I can take a shot at nl10 and start with a clean graph. I hope it's going to be a successfull attempt.

bankroll: $204.07

And that would be it with my nl10, it went terrible. It's just mind blowing how some whales are sitting with huge stacks at these tables. It seems like they can't stop hitting hands but whatever.

I played 2k hands and I played well but variance was too tough on me. First, losing flips, then I stopped hitting any board in 3b pots, people were calling my cold 4bets and I was losing pots left and right.

back to nl5



bankroll: $153.94

So I had another shot at nl10 and it went terrible again. I basically can't do ****. Running under ev, disgusting runouts and people luckboxing everything.

I play 4 tables, I had KK on 2 of them and I get 4 bet on two of them and I see AA on two tables, that's just an example how shitty I'm running. Population calling 3 bets with hands like T8o OOP and I cstill can't do anything against this because they flop top pair. Cold calling 3 bets with low pocket pairs out of nowhere and hitting sets? That's right. And you wonder why you can't win in this game...

Not getting any value as well but when I'm bluffing? They snap call me with a bullshit pair on a super wet board I run into a strong hand. Let's not forget about their super wide 3-bet range like 0.13%. Most players I play with on these stakes have this 3-bet%.



bankroll: $164.56

try to stream yourself on twitch playing and explaining your thought process at the same time, it will force you to only play hands in situations that make sense.

I'm sorry but my gameplay doesn't have almost anything to do with my losing, I just have a shitty luck. I love watching streamers/youtubers and their challenges and saying 'it's easy, you just have to value bet'. Yeah, it's easy when you hit flush vs flush, it's easy when you hit set vs set, it's easy when you're literally sunrunning. It's easy when you flop hands, it's very easy.

The problem becomes when you miss every 3 bet. I especially love when people cold call 3 bets a lot with pocket pairs and flop comes 967 and you are out there with AK again, 100th time. I love it when a nit 3 bets me and when I have QQ/JJ, he has AA or KK but when I have a set on a driest board on earth, he has AK and check folds on the flop lmaaao. I literally can't get paid for my value but they call my bluffs all ****ing day, that's how disgusting runouts I see.

Today's hands:

Hand 1:
GG Poker - $0.10 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

Hero (BTN): 137.7 BB
SB: 107.4 BB
BB: 139.3 BB
UTG: 314.1 BB
MP: 124.4 BB
CO: 384.6 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has J J

fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 2.5 BB, fold, BB raises to 8 BB, Hero calls 5.5 BB

Flop: (16.5 BB, 2 players) J 3 Q
BB bets 5.5 BB, Hero calls 5.5 BB

Turn: (27.5 BB, 2 players) 3
BB bets 21 BB, Hero calls 21 BB

River: (69.5 BB, 2 players) A
BB checks, Hero bets 49.2 BB, BB raises to 104.8 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 54 BB and is all-in

BB shows A A (Full House, Aces full of Threes)
(Pre 81%, Flop 35%, Turn 5%)
Hero shows J J (Full House, Jacks full of Threes)
(Pre 19%, Flop 65%, Turn 95%)
BB wins 271.4 BB

Hand 2:
GG Poker - $0.10 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 132.1 BB
SB: 109.6 BB
BB: 101.3 BB
Hero (UTG): 103.8 BB
MP: 122.4 BB
CO: 171.3 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has A K

Hero raises to 2.5 BB, MP calls 2.5 BB, fold, BTN raises to 11.5 BB, fold, fold, Hero raises to 103.8 BB and is all-in, fold, BTN calls 92.3 BB

Flop: (211.6 BB, 2 players) 5 Q 9

Turn: (211.6 BB, 2 players) 8

River: (211.6 BB, 2 players) T

Hero shows A K (High Card, Ace)
(Pre 7%, Flop 2%, Turn 0%)
BTN shows A A (One Pair, Aces)
(Pre 93%, Flop 98%, Turn 100%)
BTN wins 207.1 BB

A reg squeezes and I see aces, of course.

Hand 3:
GG Poker - $0.10 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 134.1 BB
SB: 100 BB
BB: 219.8 BB
Hero (UTG): 98.2 BB
MP: 176.1 BB
CO: 209.5 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has A A

Hero raises to 2.5 BB, fold, fold, BTN raises to 7.4 BB, fold, fold, Hero raises to 23 BB, BTN calls 15.6 BB

Flop: (47.5 BB, 2 players) 6 3 6
Hero bets 15 BB, BTN calls 15 BB

Turn: (77.5 BB, 2 players) 8
Hero bets 60.2 BB and is all-in, BTN calls 60.2 BB

River: (197.9 BB, 2 players) 4

Hero shows A A (Two Pair, Aces and Sixes)
(Pre 78%, Flop 9%, Turn 5%)
BTN shows 6 5 (Three of a Kind, Sixes)
(Pre 22%, Flop 91%, Turn 95%)
BTN wins 193.4 BB

Hand 4:
GG Poker - $0.10 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 100 BB
SB: 100 BB
BB: 145.6 BB
Hero (UTG): 96 BB
MP: 90.9 BB
CO: 54.8 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has A K

Hero raises to 2.5 BB, MP raises to 9.9 BB, CO calls 9.9 BB, fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 96 BB and is all-in, fold, CO calls 44.9 BB and is all-in

Flop: (121 BB, 2 players) Q 8 7

Turn: (121 BB, 2 players) 9

River: (121 BB, 2 players) A

Hero shows A K (One Pair, Aces)
(Pre 72%, Flop 8%, Turn 5%)
CO shows K 8 (Flush, Ace High)
(Pre 28%, Flop 92%, Turn 95%)
CO wins 116.5 BB
I love those hands. I just know I'm gonna lose it from the start.

Two sessions from today and yesterday: AK vs AA - 3 times, AA vs QQ - 2 times lost to a set, KK vs AA - run into aces 3 times, AK vs KK - 1 time, JJ vs AA - 1 time. All these hands are from late pos. from CO to BB.

Hands I posted are standard, expect last one. Running into AA vs KK is standard as well but it just shows how good you have to run to climb up. I don't care what anyone says. Someone will say that the winrate is in small pots but I lost 10 buy-ins because of pre flop coolers alone, not including set over sets, flush over flush, it's almost 20 buy ins.

Now I have to go back again to nl5 and grind up to nl10.

I know that poker is a game of skill in a vaccuum but not a lot of people can achieve 'the long run'. Not everyone can get lucky like a lot of pros, for example: Fedor Holz. He's a great player but he's been sunrunning and everyone knows it.

Looks like you are just getting bad side of variance. GL on the journey to the top of the mountain. Its a good discipline to move down and grind it back up. I been working on that. I want to jump to higher stakes, but I want to do it the right way this time and grind up every limit to make sure I can beat each limit. I value patience a lot more then I used to in the past and it is paying off for me.

Yeah, I was tilted when I was writing this post. Bad variance, no patience and **** like this happens. Good luck on your journey as well.

So today I took another shot at nl10 after grinding up third time from nl5 and I'm up 1 buy in so it's not bad. I hope it's gonna go well this time.




bankroll: $210.05

Subbed.

How are you shot taking? Do you give yourself a couple of BI's at the next level?

The difference between 5nl and 10nl is marginal, so providing you're winning and comfortable at 5nl, i wouldn't think you would have any issues.

Good luck

I take a 5 buy in shot. When I'm down 5 buy ins, I'm usually moving down but sometimes because of tilt I stay 2 or 3 buy ins longer on a limit. I would say it's probably the same, I see the same players on nl5 and nl10.

The worst thing about me is tilting but it's been good lately.

Second session today at nl10 and suprisingly it's going good. My hands finally hold up in all in pots, not like before.

I've been noticing something very weird. Sometimes people snap call me with absolute garbage like some bots lol. They don't even think about the spot, they just snap call me with a hand that's 500% fold.

Graph:





GG Poker - $0.10 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 100.7 BB
SB: 126.8 BB
BB: 172.1 BB
UTG: 32.9 BB
MP: 201.8 BB
Hero (CO): 153.3 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 7 Q

fold, fold, Hero raises to 2.5 BB, fold, fold, BB calls 1.5 BB

Flop: (5.5 BB, 2 players) Q Q 6
BB checks, Hero bets 1.9 BB, BB raises to 7.8 BB, Hero calls 5.9 BB

Turn: (21.1 BB, 2 players) T
BB bets 6 BB, Hero calls 6 BB

River: (33.1 BB, 2 players) 8
BB checks, Hero bets 11 BB, BB calls 11 BB

Hero shows 7 Q (Three of a Kind, Queens)
(Pre 64%, Flop 99.9%, Turn 100%)
BB shows 6 T (Two Pair, Queens and Tens)
(Pre 36%, Flop 0.1%, Turn 0%)
Hero wins 51 BB


bankroll: $233.58

Little update on nl10 shot.

Going strong and finally I can say that it's going great. Suprisingly, my ev line started to go up. I didn't even tilt today when I lost two flips with AK vs QQ. A few weeks ago I would go and tilt a few buy ins just because of that. Bankroll going up + I got $38 from ggcare.

Graph:



Hand 1:

GG Poker - $0.10 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 141 BB
SB: 144.5 BB
Hero (BB): 100 BB
UTG: 165.4 BB
MP: 117.8 BB
CO: 103.8 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 5 A

fold, fold, fold, fold, SB raises to 2.7 BB, Hero raises to 9 BB, SB calls 6.3 BB

Flop: (18 BB, 2 players) 4 Q 9
SB checks, Hero bets 6.6 BB, SB calls 6.6 BB

Turn: (31.2 BB, 2 players) T
SB checks, Hero checks

River: (31.2 BB, 2 players) J
SB bets 9.3 BB, Hero raises to 30 BB, fold

Hero wins 45.9 BB

I like how I played this hand vs a nit. I went for a 3 bet on the river trying to represent AK against his block bet and it worked.

It's probably not a good play in theory but I like it a lot.


bankroll: $316.68